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After focusing on gifts for the road and gifts for the home, Ars' third installment in our 2018 Holiday Gift Guide goes a different route. Since Ars is a site for people who don’t mind digging deep into how tech works, the theme today is gift ideas for “power users”—those who are more involved with modern tech and can’t stand to use less than fully featured gear.

Basically, these items seem tailor-made for the people in your life who may already read a site like Ars Technica. The protocol here is the same as it was with our first two guides: we’ve looked back on a year of gadget testing and rounded up a smattering of items we think would make your loved one happy. Fair warning: because this particular guide is aimed at people who demand high utility and/or high performance, some of the items below are a little pricey. But, as always, you get what you pay for.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Element Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Motherboard

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The latest iteration of the tiny PC, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, added a speedier quad-core, 64-bit, 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 processor, faster Ethernet support, and more robust dual-band Wi-Fi alongside the usual audio jack, Bluetooth 4.2, and HDMI port. The base motherboard costs $35, though you’ll want to ensure your loved one has a microSD card, power supply, heat sinks, and a spare HDMI cable handy if they’re a first-time Pi user. (You can get a bundle that includes all of that if you don’t have such parts already.)

Once that’s all set, there are a billion different things your loved one could make with the Pi. A retro game console—with no game limits!—is a popular one, but they could also build their own smart speaker, garage door opener, flying quadcopter, or any other project with a good tutorial. The Model B+ itself isn’t strong enough to be a great media streamer or full-fledged PC, but it’s technically capable of being those things, too. Whatever the use case, as long as your loved one has enough patience to get by the initial learning curve, the Pi tends to bring fun to those who genuinely love tech.

Mophie Powerstation AC

Enlarge/ Mophie's Powerstation AC battery. The actual AC port is on the top of the device.

A portable battery is eternally useful for someone who lives on the road, but most packs are designed for smartphones and tablets more so than bigger laptops. If you’re buying for someone who frequently works on the go, a more robust battery like the Mophie Powerstation AC is strong enough to keep their notebook charged when they can’t reach a wall outlet.

Mophie Powerstation AC

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The Powerstation AC carries an ample 22,000mAh of juice and can put out a little more than 100 watts of power through its built-in AC port. That’s borderline overkill for thinner Ultrabooks and strong enough to add several hours of use to many bulkier 15-inch laptops. Whether or not it can completely recharge a larger laptop will depend on the size of that notebook’s battery, but it should at least get between 70-80 percent of the way there, which is still strong relative to other batteries in this market.

There’s a 30W USB-C Power Delivery port for quickly recharging smartphones and other USB-C devices on top of that, as well as a USB-A port for recharging older devices at 12W. The USB-C PD makes it so that refilling the Powerstation AC itself doesn’t take as long as it could, either—though, as with most giant portable batteries, it will still take two to three hours to get back to 100 percent. This Mophie is designed well, too: a rubber flap protects the AC port from potential debris; activating the AC power is as simple as pressing a little power button on the top of the device; and I personally enjoy the fabric coating covering the device. It comes with a two-year warranty on the off chance something goes wrong, and Mophie is a well-known, relatively trustworthy name in a market filled with shady brands.

The Powerstation AC isn’t without its flaws. While it isn’t all that loud compared to other AC packs, it still makes more noise than a traditional portable battery. Likewise, while many competing packs are bulkier, the Powerstation AC isn’t exactly small: it’s 7.5 inches tall and weighs 1.7 pounds, so it’s meant to be stashed in a backpack. Mophie probably could have added at least one more USB port, too. Most notably, this battery is undeniably pricey for a 22,000mAh capacity. But some of these issues are inevitable for an AC battery. For this particular use case, the Powerstation AC is a powerful and polished choice for frequent flyers or power emergencies.

Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC Lite

On a broad level, the rise of “mesh” Wi-Fi systems over the last few years is great. The consumer networking industry should make it easier to eliminate coverage dead spots around the house. But if your loved one suffers from that brand of bad Internet and doesn’t mind running a few more Ethernet cables around their place, they can solve that problem for much less money by investing in more traditional wireless access points like those in Ubiquiti’s UniFi AP line.

Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC Lite

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These little discs connect to your home network through a wired Ethernet port and beam out Wi-Fi to their surrounding area. This eliminates any issues a mesh system might have transferring a wireless signal from access point to access point. As a result, even the entry-level UniFi AP AC Lite, which costs $80 per unit, usually performs better or at least on par with mesh WI-Fi kits that are two to three times as expensive.

How well it performs will depend on the size and layout of your loved one’s place, but they don’t necessarily have to go full Lee Hutchinson with their setup: one AC Lite should be enough to cover a typical apartment, while one or two should be good enough for most houses. So long as your gift recipient is OK with a few more cables and running Ubiquiti’s software controller on a computer to set up the device (it's not as complicated as it sounds), this should help provide smooth, reliable Wi-Fi in spots that were once a source of frustration. That said, we do like Netgear’s Orbi (RBK50) mesh kit for those who are willing to pay up for a simpler, more wireless setup—Orbi's raw throughput is still incredibly impressive for that class of device.

111 Reader Comments

Yeeeeeep. Heaven help me if my family or anyone tried do buy me "Tech" gifts. Any real "techie" researches the bejesus out of their own setups and the idea of getting a random access point or NAS that doesn't fit their usage or needs just means absently smiling and going "Geeee....that's....that's nice...." while their family member looks on wondering why you're not more excited after they spent so much money on what the internet told them to buy.

As a "techie"....buy me dress socks, ties, undershirts....boring crap so I can spend my $$$ on the tech stuff I want. That's the best gift for a nerd. Free up my income a bit to buy fun things, don't try and buy me fun things.

On the research side, I always check the 1 and 2 star reviews on Amazon. If I see a problem that is common with several reviewers, I consider that the kiss of death. As in the Synology NAS, the common issue is poor customer support.

On the research side, I always check the 1 and 2 star reviews on Amazon. If I see a problem that is common with several reviewers, I consider that the kiss of death. As in the Synology NAS, the common issue is poor customer support.

Data - The issue with the Synology NAS was their choice of the Intel Atom C2000 CPU, which essentially has a timebomb issue caused by Intel which Synology cannot fix without retrofitting the affected devices with another CPU (which they have decided not to do).

Anecdote - My DS1815+ (which I think I paid something like $850 for, new) failed several months ago after 2 years of 24/7 operation. I wrote to Synology support and within 24 hours they had a replacement in the mail. I installed all 8 disks in the new device, powered on, it said "hey looks like these drives were in another Synology, do you want me to enable your existing RAID?", 10 minutes later I was up and running again. They paid for return shipping on the old one, too. The replacement cost me zero and also there was no argument. The failure was clearly the C2000 CPU but I said nothing about that, just described the problem.

This is a cruddy situation, but I will be sticking with them for my next NAS.

I'd steer clear of commercial NAS boxes and instead encourage people to build their own, or build one for them. Just get a small, low power mobo, small case and install FreeNAS.

Commercial NAS boxes are great until they go wrong, and then instead of taking 20 minutes to swap a dead PSU it takes you a month to source a replacement.

I've done both, and stick with the Synology for the WAF. My choice has nothing to do with the hardware, it's all about how easy is it for my wife to access. The Synology apps like DS File and DS Cam are quality of life apps that are much more seamless in their use, especially for remote access, than the apps on any of the DIY nas OS's that I tried, or a DIY Linux system.

I'd steer clear of commercial NAS boxes and instead encourage people to build their own, or build one for them. Just get a small, low power mobo, small case and install FreeNAS.

Commercial NAS boxes are great until they go wrong, and then instead of taking 20 minutes to swap a dead PSU it takes you a month to source a replacement.

I've done both, and stick with the Synology for the WAF. My choice has nothing to do with the hardware, it's all about how easy is it for my wife to access. The Synology apps like DS File and DS Cam are quality of life apps that are much more seamless in their use, especially for remote access, than the apps on any of the DIY nas OS's that I tried, or a DIY Linux system.

DIY always carries the cost in time, so unless this is your primary hobby you have to factor that in. I have a 4-bay Synology NAS. It took me minutes to set up, and takes no time to maintain. I risk having to either wait for an RMA replacement or, worst-case, I can just buy another if it fails. But $400 or $500 to replace it may well be preferable to being my own tech support on an roll-your-own option.

It's like the guy with the classic car out busting his knuckles wrenching on it every few weekends. That stuff is awesome, if it's your thing. If it's not, buy a newer car and drop it off when it needs service, and pay with money instead of time.

I wholeheartedly say do not hit the Steelseries headset. Not when you can buy an Antlion modmoc (wired or wireless) and the use your preferred headphones. In the end you get better sound quality both sending and receiving.

It's sad when a $40 modmic and a $20 pair of headphones is a better deal for you than a $200 gamer headset.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

Its a low-energy local fileserver. Don't even bother with RAID, since its mostly a custom software deploy that is impossible to recover if the hardware goes south on you. RAID isn't a backup. This is maybe just the only 321 onsite device you keep on and accessible.

I dunno. Sysnology seems to have gone to some pretty dodgy power supplies as of late. HardwareNexus and their affiliates are directly affected by this. Check their YouTube. Bit going 2/3 for failure rates and all 3 we're power supply related issues really makes me wonder about my own Sysnology NAS. It's running strong but it isn't as new as their units and may have a different PSU for it.

I wholeheartedly say do not hit the Steelseries headset. Not when you can buy an Antlion modmoc (wired or wireless) and the use your preferred headphones. In the end you get better sound quality both sending and receiving.

It's sad when a $40 modmic and a $20 pair of headphones is a better deal for you than a $200 gamer headset.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

Its a low-energy local fileserver. Don't even bother with RAID, since its mostly a custom software deploy that is impossible to recover if the hardware goes south on you. RAID isn't a backup. This is maybe just the only 321 onsite device you keep on and accessible.

I dunno. Sysnology seems to have gone to some pretty dodgy power supplies as of late. HardwareNexus and their affiliates are directly affected by this. Check their YouTube. Bit going 2/3 for failure rates and all 3 we're power supply related issues really makes me wonder about my own Sysnology NAS. It's running strong but it isn't as new as their units and may have a different PSU for it.

I would love to peak into the mind of somebody who thinks giving a $1000+ Christmas gift is normal/acceptable behavior.

Some of the sub $100 ideas aren't bad though. I actually gave somebody a UAP-AC-PRO 2 years ago, although it was a combined Christmas/birthday gift.

Meh. I've done it. 1. Dual income, no kids, living waaaay beneath our means. What are we saving it for, if not to spoil each other?

2. If my wife needs a new laptop, and the model she wants is $1000+, why not get it for her as a gift? Or I spend a bunch on gifts for her, and she spends the $1000+ herself? Is that more acceptable for you?

I wholeheartedly say do not hit the Steelseries headset. Not when you can buy an Antlion modmoc (wired or wireless) and the use your preferred headphones. In the end you get better sound quality both sending and receiving.

It's sad when a $40 modmic and a $20 pair of headphones is a better deal for you than a $200 gamer headset.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

Its a low-energy local fileserver. Don't even bother with RAID, since its mostly a custom software deploy that is impossible to recover if the hardware goes south on you. RAID isn't a backup. This is maybe just the only 321 onsite device you keep on and accessible.

I dunno. Sysnology seems to have gone to some pretty dodgy power supplies as of late. HardwareNexus and their affiliates are directly affected by this. Check their YouTube. Bit going 2/3 for failure rates and all 3 we're power supply related issues really makes me wonder about my own Sysnology NAS. It's running strong but it isn't as new as their units and may have a different PSU for it.

Anything branded for "gamers" tends to be terrible, or at the very least overpriced. I've been riding on Logitech G430s for years, but I also got them for $40 way back during an Amazon Gold Box deal. Not audiophile quality, but they sound nice, the cups are comfy, the wire can stretch across an entire room, and the ability to swap between 3.5mm and USB is nice.

Anything branded for "gamers" tends to be terrible, or at the very least overpriced. I've been riding on Logitech G430s for years, but I also got them for $40 way back during an Amazon Gold Box deal. Not audiophile quality, but they sound nice, the cups are comfy, the wire can stretch across an entire room, and the ability to swap between 3.5mm and USB is nice.

Still using a years-old set of Astro A40s, with the Mixamp. Stupidly priced when I bought it (at least 2x what it should cost), but yeah ridiculously comfortable, audio on the headphones is quite good but not amazing, and the mic is top notch. That last bit is something people don't always think about, because they don't tend to hear themselves. But we all have that one friend who has a complete potato mic.

It's still always funny when you see two products that are nearly identical, and one has clearly been marked up as the "gamer" version.

I'd steer clear of commercial NAS boxes and instead encourage people to build their own, or build one for them. Just get a small, low power mobo, small case and install FreeNAS.

Commercial NAS boxes are great until they go wrong, and then instead of taking 20 minutes to swap a dead PSU it takes you a month to source a replacement.

I've done both, and stick with the Synology for the WAF. My choice has nothing to do with the hardware, it's all about how easy is it for my wife to access. The Synology apps like DS File and DS Cam are quality of life apps that are much more seamless in their use, especially for remote access, than the apps on any of the DIY nas OS's that I tried, or a DIY Linux system.

Same. I love FreeNAS and have (and will) use the hell out of it for private projects, but there's a family aspect to some decisions which have to be taken into account.

The Shield does not support Dolby Vision HDR, however. If your loved one needs that—or if they're already invested in Apple devices and AirPlay streaming—the Apple TV 4K is the obvious alternative in this price range.

If you're putting off getting an Apple TV because it cannot direct play from a Plex server, you should be aware that there is an update to the tvOS (and iOS) client which enables this.

Currently only available to Plexpass holders on the beta program mind you.

There's also the ole' trusted, infinitely easier, and less configurable, Air Video HD. I'd been using it to stream from computer to iOS devices for years and its availability for the latest gen AppleTV was actually what convinced me to upgrade from a neglected 3rd gen to a 4K model just two weeks ago.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

I echo this sentiment.

My personal opinion is that if you're looking at a (driveless) 2-bay NAS for $300, an external USB HDD or HDD dock is $40, and most modern routers can drive external USB drives as a network share, and some can do things like FTP, Bittorrent client, etc. If you just want basic network file share and storage, hanging a USB drive off your router is not a bad idea.

If you want to do NAS-y stuff, like media servers, drive imaging/backup (remember, a NAS is not a backup!), and need higher capacity storage, like media backups if you're a streamer or content creator, consider a 4-bay NAS, and preferably one with either Gigabit teaming or 10 GbE for faster transfer rates.

If you need more NAS than a 4-bay, then it's probably time to build one yourself around FreeNAS (cheaper), or consider rackmount servers (more powerful, more technical, more expensive).

I'm not a networking specialist, though, so if you have anything to add/amend, please do. I've got a QNAP TS-451+ 4-bay NAS (Quad-core J1900 Celerons which are Atom-based, the newer TS-453e has newer Apollo Lake J3xxx Celerons which are based on Core/Skylake architecture) at home with 8 GB of RAM and 32TB of drives that I use to store and stream media to my home network, but otherwise not doing anything fancy (simple SMB, as all my devices, including phone and tablet, are happy to play media files off network shares).

I would love to peak into the mind of somebody who thinks giving a $1000+ Christmas gift is normal/acceptable behavior.

Some of the sub $100 ideas aren't bad though. I actually gave somebody a UAP-AC-PRO 2 years ago, although it was a combined Christmas/birthday gift.

At this point, I've given up on Ars (or any other tech site, for that matter) suggesting gifts in the price range that I would consider normal/acceptable. Sorry, Jeff, but if I want something that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars like a NAS or a friggin' laptop, I am going to put in the requisite volume of research to ensure that I'm getting something I will actually use for the long-term. Buying something like that as a gift is a massive gamble.

Maybe I'm just not the target market for a list like this. I would be really curious to know how much Ars pulls in from the affiliate links for the various items on this list. Maybe nehinks and I are the oddballs?

My gut tells me that the "gifts" purchased at the behest of guides like this are presents to oneself more often than not.

Yeah, presents to oneself is more like it. Or like my wife and I do, as techies, is to buy a gift for "us" rather than each buy individual gifts. It's the only way we ever do big purchases anymore.

I love/hate gift lists like these. I'm always thirsty for ideas, and sometimes I find great ideas in these lists, but most of the time...nope. Part of that is because I read too many of them, so at this point, _every_ list I read is largely redundant with some prior list. Unless I take a substantial break (unlikely) that will forever be my burden to bear.

Anyway, some ideas for "tech gifts for other people" that don't break the bank... some of these I bought for others, some for myself (but others have told me they thought it they were cool...and are now at a high risk for receiving one):

- Tile trackers; I bought a couple 4-packs last year for around $50 a box, and then opened and individually wrapped them as stocking stuffers; they used to have 1-year lifespans (disposable), but the new ones have replaceable batteries.. still relatively cheap, and pack a nice novelty/high-tech punch; be warned they do require user account creation, and all that entails (4-pack for $100; retail)

- USB multi-port charger; I now have THREE of these (from Anker). I got a 6-port because it's 60watt, and I liked the guarantee of 10 watts per port...later realized it wasn't enough for the bedside, and most stuff doesn't need 10 watts, so I got the 10-port, 60w version and relegated the 6-port one for travel; later felt that was _too many_ ports and too big (and involved an extra power cord) so I stuck it in the kitchen and got the built-in-pronged 4-port one for travel; these are so useful (various brand and models, $20-$40)

- still love my wired Panasonic cheapo earbuds (RP-TCM125) that I learned about from a wirecutter article; they have a newer top pick now (even a newer budget pick), but the Panasonics are still far an away the cheapest, and offer good sound and decent (but not pervasive) isolation; if you know someone using their pack-in headphones, these are almost always a big upgrade for little $ ( < $15) current wirecutter article: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best- ... -under-40/

- An electric arc (candle) lighter; the one I got (RONXS electric arc lighter) seems to be discontinued..my "buy it again" link goes to a sad dog page on amazon. But if I search for the string above, they still seem to have one, with a nicer charge indicator (well...WITH a charge indicator) and it's building up similarly positive reviews to the one I'd gotten. Everyone who I've shown this thing to thinks it's amazing; it was the culmination of my search for a usable and refillable candle lighter. I thought my search would end at a high quality butane one, but this is better. < $20

- HDMI adapter for one's phone.. For iPhones, it's the lightning to HDMI adapter.. For android, there are various dongles. These things are small, easy to keep in a bag or purse and very useful for anyone who ever wants to present or show stuff in a pinch. Obviously, it depends on the TV you want to use, but generally I've found HDMI cables to be a much more safe and available display solution than chromecasts or appletvs or other streaming solutions where you have to worry about networking. Prices vary, but should be well under $50

-- corollary to the above, if someone is a serial presenter and wants to have their own cable handy, an ultra-slim, active HDMI cable from monoprice (or anyplace that might carry them; I just know this place better) will be easier to pack than a typical, thicker gauge cable. (prices vary, but definitely well under $50 unless you're getting something crazy)

-- another pro tip: get them a HDMI female-to-female coupler...in case it's easier to unplug an HDMI cable from an existing device, but it doesn't have enough reach to get it where you need it to go (should cost just a few bucks)

The Shield does not support Dolby Vision HDR, however. If your loved one needs that—or if they're already invested in Apple devices and AirPlay streaming—the Apple TV 4K is the obvious alternative in this price range.

If you're putting off getting an Apple TV because it cannot direct play from a Plex server, you should be aware that there is an update to the tvOS (and iOS) client which enables this.

Currently only available to Plexpass holders on the beta program mind you.

Plex will transcode Atmos and DTS:X on the ATV4k. Just buy Infuse, which IMO is a better choice on the ATV4, which will pass HD Audio as PCM. Infuse will use your Plex library as a source.

I get that a lot of people view these gifts as very pricey. But there are actually people that do spend this much on Christmas. Just because YOU don't spend that much, doesn't mean other people don't. Get some perspective people.

The median full-time dual income household income in the US is around $80-100k. I suspect, given a lot of STEM folks here, that median full-time dual household income for Ars readers is a decent bit higher.

How much you earn in a year isn't directly correlated to the amount you might have in savings or to spend on gifts, but I'd be surprised if there was no relationship. While 39% of American Households might not have two nickels to rub together, I suspect the percentage is far lower for folks on this site.

--Might really depend on the person. I wouldn't spend $1000 on a gift for my brother or parents unless it was being split several ways, but I did get my wife a Note9 as an early holiday gift. Certainly more than I'd normally spend on a phone, but this is the sort of purchase we'd make periodically anyways, so calling it her Christmas present, might have actually been a money saver

I also personally benefit from this as I don't have to hear how much she hates her old/slow phone with a crap non-replaceable battery anymore. Well at least for about the next three years or so That is easily worth a couple hundred bucks to me.

I would love to peak into the mind of somebody who thinks giving a $1000+ Christmas gift is normal/acceptable behavior.

Some of the sub $100 ideas aren't bad though. I actually gave somebody a UAP-AC-PRO 2 years ago, although it was a combined Christmas/birthday gift.

My cousins and siblings are each getting a 3d printer (Geeetech A20M also got it with 15% off of sale price on ebay which is the cheapest I've seen it go for.)... that's the only way they'd really get over $100 is a combined/shared. Works out to about 80-100 each though.

Just a tip for those thinking of the Ubiquiti APs, you need PoE, and more than one if over 1500sqft. I went with the Orbi (I also looked into the Velop but found the Orbi had more features I can use).

They include a PoE injector, so you don't need any extra hardware, and you only need to run a single cable to the device. That's a major plus if you're ceiling mounting them, which will also give you better coverage per AP than most solutions that sit on a table. (Or worse, the floor, as I've seen in several cases.)

I was actually holding off on the Ubiquiti APs because I didn't have PoE, I didn't realize they included an injector. I guess they're going back on the wish list.

I get that a lot of people view these gifts as very pricey. But there are actually people that do spend this much on Christmas. Just because YOU don't spend that much, doesn't mean other people don't. Get some perspective people.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

Its a low-energy local fileserver. Don't even bother with RAID, since its mostly a custom software deploy that is impossible to recover if the hardware goes south on you. RAID isn't a backup. This is maybe just the only 321 onsite device you keep on and accessible.

Synology uses standard mdadm raid volumes. As long as you still have enough drives in the array available you can easily recover them by using another Synology device, or by moving the drives to a PC that boots to Linux either on another local drive or Live CD.

Alternately, a Drobo has 5 bays, can replace/rebuild a failed drive (or two if you're using the full 5-bays) in real time, and allows for mixed size drives.

Yeeeeeep. Heaven help me if my family or anyone tried do buy me "Tech" gifts. Any real "techie" researches the bejesus out of their own setups and the idea of getting a random access point or NAS that doesn't fit their usage or needs just means absently smiling and going "Geeee....that's....that's nice...." while their family member looks on wondering why you're not more excited after they spent so much money on what the internet told them to buy.

As a "techie"....buy me dress socks, ties, undershirts....boring crap so I can spend my $$$ on the tech stuff I want. That's the best gift for a nerd. Free up my income a bit to buy fun things, don't try and buy me fun things.

On the research side, I always check the 1 and 2 star reviews on Amazon. If I see a problem that is common with several reviewers, I consider that the kiss of death. As in the Synology NAS, the common issue is poor customer support.

This is my single data point, but I actually had a very good experience with Synology's customer support.

My NAS was crashing hard a few hours after installation. I spent three weeks exchanging emails with customer support. They were very patient, answering quickly, providing suggestions and tests, even took control remotely after a while... And in the end I realized that I had a custom script with a typo that overwrote /dev/null instead of writing to it. It was entirely my fault, I apologized profusely, which they accepted gracefully. In the meantime, I had learnt a lot thanks to them.

I want to live with whatever family convinced the author to put a TV, a NAS box, and a MacBook on a gift idea list.

The only things I'm even remotely comfortable with asking my relatives for for Christmas are the RasPi and a Yubikey. Everything else on this list is "ask for cash and see if you get enough to buy it yourself" territory at best.

Just a tip for those thinking of the Ubiquiti APs, you need PoE, and more than one if over 1500sqft. I went with the Orbi (I also looked into the Velop but found the Orbi had more features I can use).

They include a PoE injector, so you don't need any extra hardware, and you only need to run a single cable to the device. That's a major plus if you're ceiling mounting them, which will also give you better coverage per AP than most solutions that sit on a table. (Or worse, the floor, as I've seen in several cases.)

I was actually holding off on the Ubiquiti APs because I didn't have PoE, I didn't realize they included an injector. I guess they're going back on the wish list.

If you're going with those UAP-AC-Lites, you might as well get them a replacement switch with at least a couple PoE ports. AC-Lites ought to use 4W or less.

I purchased this AP about two months ago. It is a great unit. Mine came with a PoE injector. Would suspect they still send them in the box.

I got a UAP-AC-PRO yesterday (yeah...) that was marketed as not coming with a PoE injector, and it came with a PoE injector. I fear that Ubiquiti may break into my home and hide PoE injectors around my house like Easter eggs.

But getting a UAP is a decent excuse to trade up to something ( a PoE switch) that you're probably going to have to use anyway. And, of course, its a fantastic trigger for people who just need an excuse to spend a large amount of money on home surveillance.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

Meh. Real nerds will be using Amazon S3 and Glacier for long-term backups. RAID-1 of 2x10+ TB drives (or JBOD if you need 20+ TB) is fine for temporary use until the sync happens.

I would love to peak into the mind of somebody who thinks giving a $1000+ Christmas gift is normal/acceptable behavior.

Some of the sub $100 ideas aren't bad though. I actually gave somebody a UAP-AC-PRO 2 years ago, although it was a combined Christmas/birthday gift.

At this point, I've given up on Ars (or any other tech site, for that matter) suggesting gifts in the price range that I would consider normal/acceptable. Sorry, Jeff, but if I want something that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars like a NAS or a friggin' laptop, I am going to put in the requisite volume of research to ensure that I'm getting something I will actually use for the long-term. Buying something like that as a gift is a massive gamble.

Maybe I'm just not the target market for a list like this. I would be really curious to know how much Ars pulls in from the affiliate links for the various items on this list. Maybe nehinks and I are the oddballs?

You're not wrong here, and it is a common complaint on all these gifts guides (one that I have been seeing more often too). I think there are a few things at play here. First, as a tech site things just tend to be more expensive than if this were a home site or clothing site etc. Technology that is good is usually a little pricey for the gift giving range. Second, I think there is some disconnect based on all the review hardware that is received. I know if I was able to look at most new phones that come out I too would start to nitpick about the size of bezels and would recommend expensive things because they are just a little better than less expensive things. Lastly, I think there is a disconnect between how much inflation has driven up costs. $100 is not nearly as much today as it was 5 years ago, or 10 years. a $250 NAS is actually pretty decent deal, and is on the level of spending around $100-$150 on someone a few years ago, something I would consider for a close family member in some instances. I know at least in my family we had to recently up the maximum we have for our gift exchange as it was really difficult to find decent things for under $35 any more.

$20 will buy a wedge of god-tier cheese or a bar of damn good chocolate or a 4-pack of damn fine beer or some exquisite bath bombs. $30 gets a pretty decent bottle of wine. I wouldn’t spend that much of my money on these things, but if you gave me one of these, I would be incredibly grateful, much more so than spending $30 on some shitty tech present for me which I won’t use.

I’ve learned for adults buying small extremely high quality consumables is pretty much ideal. They deliver a lovely experience, extend the giftee’s horizons, and don’t clutter up the house once eaten / drunk / dunked in the bath.

If the giftee doesn’t like them, then hey, they’re pretty small so not embarrassing to have lying around, and as they’re high quality, the thought is appreciated and they’re relatively easy to re-gift.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

Or a NAS for a regular power user. Seriously, I have the DS218+ they have in here and I run my Plex server on it, store all my files on it and have them automatically upload to my OneDrive, and even run a website and more and have zero issues. Currently I only have a single 3TB drive in it. I intend to get another one as a mirror drive in the future, but honestly as a power user it's been great and it's very small and very powerful. Even most power users don't need RAID 10, or even RAID 5.

Seriously, though, your options for that are RAID 1, RAID 0, or JBOD. At least with a 4 bay you can fantasize about RAID 10 (even though you're probably running RAID 5 and secretly feeling guilty about it).

I echo this sentiment.

My personal opinion is that if you're looking at a (driveless) 2-bay NAS for $300, an external USB HDD or HDD dock is $40, and most modern routers can drive external USB drives as a network share, and some can do things like FTP, Bittorrent client, etc. If you just want basic network file share and storage, hanging a USB drive off your router is not a bad idea.

If you want to do NAS-y stuff, like media servers, drive imaging/backup (remember, a NAS is not a backup!), and need higher capacity storage, like media backups if you're a streamer or content creator, consider a 4-bay NAS, and preferably one with either Gigabit teaming or 10 GbE for faster transfer rates.

If you need more NAS than a 4-bay, then it's probably time to build one yourself around FreeNAS (cheaper), or consider rackmount servers (more powerful, more technical, more expensive).

I'm not a networking specialist, though, so if you have anything to add/amend, please do. I've got a QNAP TS-451+ 4-bay NAS (Quad-core J1900 Celerons which are Atom-based, the newer TS-453e has newer Apollo Lake J3xxx Celerons which are based on Core/Skylake architecture) at home with 8 GB of RAM and 32TB of drives that I use to store and stream media to my home network, but otherwise not doing anything fancy (simple SMB, as all my devices, including phone and tablet, are happy to play media files off network shares).

I wish I could boldface for NAS is not a backup in your post. Even so, you probably saved at least one person's bacon with your post. Thank you!

If you're going with those UAP-AC-Lites, you might as well get them a replacement switch with at least a couple PoE ports. AC-Lites ought to use 4W or less.

I purchased this AP about two months ago. It is a great unit. Mine came with a PoE injector. Would suspect they still send them in the box.

I got a UAP-AC-PRO yesterday (yeah...) that was marketed as not coming with a PoE injector, and it came with a PoE injector. I fear that Ubiquiti may break into my home and hide PoE injectors around my house like Easter eggs.

But getting a UAP is a decent excuse to trade up to something ( a PoE switch) that you're probably going to have to use anyway. And, of course, its a fantastic trigger for people who just need an excuse to spend a large amount of money on home surveillance.

I think Ubiquiti includes injectors with single unit packages, but not with AP multipacks.

I ended going up with a cheaper non-PoE Ubiquiti switch, then connecting the injectors at the switch, rather than at the AP end. Plugged those into my UPS. If APs are your only need for PoE, might as well save the money on the switch.